User talk:Solaris~enwikibooks

What is the problem with democracy in it’s current form?

I see various images. I see a closed wooden chest, but with light coming out from the inside. I see a cartoon cat opening this chest slowly, with music in the background creating tension. The tension get's stronger. The cat looks pretty stupid; it's not very smart. It slowly opens the chest and the light get's stronger and stronger. But then a huge first pumps out unexpectedly and punches the cat inthe face. After that I see long halms of grass near the egde of a river,bending stronly in the wind. Bending but not cracking. The grass islong and small, but also extremely flexible. Next I see a futuristic city viewed from above. Their is a platformin the sky. It's huge and I hear sounds everywhere. Sounds likehammers and saws and of tonnes of steel being dropped. It's a busy scene where many things are happening. Slowly this scene changes, as I feel my imagination is not strong enough to view this scene. Instead I get a similair image of men being at work near a busyroad. There are cars constantly passing by as this is a huge crossroad, but the cars are slowed down enormously by the work. In the background there is an entrance to a freeway, but it's closed off from this side. This is a crossroad. From this side the freeway is inacsessable, but from another angle it is. Cars speed up andenter the freeway, but here the cars are almost stuck. They can reach the freeway, but only with great difficulty.The world and it's goverenments are like the building project in the air of this futuristic city. It's complex and it's nearly impossible to get a good overview. Work is constantly being done. It's a work in progress and it's nowhere near finished. We look inside our own box of logical thought, our perception, but what the government sees as the right solution, can be nothing more then a giant fist that punches you in the face. Government projects are like a huge blackbox, you don't know what's inside. At many times the solution plays out worse then you expected. There's also a reason for me not seeing this complex image of the futuristic building project correctly; it's too complex and I am not ready. Similairly the world is not ready to divise such a perfect and complex building plan. Right now the government act like the men doing work at the road. They work, but not very efficiently. They will get the job done, but while doing so they also narrow the road to the freeway of prosperity.

Of political party’s and treacle

The current political system is like a plate full of treacle. The treacle is stirred with a large wooden spoon, but it's very syrupi and sticky. It takes a great amount of effort to spir this treacle. Small waves move about in circles, like when a stone is dropped in the water. But the waves too are very syrupi and even when the spoon is used to stir heavily; you can't really get the waves to move. Next to the plate stands a clock. As I look at it it's markers speed up and I feel like everything around me is rushed. I see shadows of things moving. Afterimages of things moving so fast I can't see them properly. Time speeds up and as I look at the plate again I can see that the treacle get's harder and harder as time passes; like cement drying in the sun. It get ever harder to steer the syrup.

Next I see senate. A large room shaped like in a half circle, with many chairs in many rows; but nearly all are empty. Hollands prime minister speaks. It is a long speech, but he is doing it with great vigor. His hands move in various shapes to strengthen his tale and I can hear passion, or even a bit of anger in his voice. However, there are few people in this large room and the few that are there seem either bored or preoccupied with other things. Behind me is a large screen, with the name of various political party's and their logo's on it and as my attention is drawn to the screen the scene slowly changes and I see a room full of people. This room is even larger then the first and it is filled with people. Supporters of the political party and the press. Journalist write down eagerly every word that is spoken and photographers take many pictures, as their blue light flashes in this darkened room. The atmossphere is lively and everyone seems excited. There are flowers given to those who held a speech. This is a gathering of an important political party at the elections. I see again a large screen, but this time there are statistics beamed on it. I see percentages of how well each party did. Everyone is happy (this is decmoracy), but suddenly the scene changes and I see the same clock as before and time speeds up. I view the treacle on the table again and it looks just the same. It's quite hard and nearly impossible to stir.

The democratic process of elections every 4 years is not enough to soften the treacle and make it easier to stir. Even though everyone (or most people) appear to be happy with democracy in it's current form, it's still flawed.

Coming back to my analogy of the plate of treacle. Maybe it's not treacle at all the plate needs to be filled with. Treacle might smell and taste nice and sweet; but it can also stick to your teeth leaving a bad aftertaste. Maybe we need a toothbrush to clean the teeth or maybe we need to fill the plate with something else like yogurt. Yogurt is clean and white; you don't need to stir it and it's also very healthy (more so then treacle which has a lot of sugar). You don't need to stir yogurt; as it's less sticky so that would be a defenite advantage. Also; if it doesn't leave an aftertaste you don't really need a toothbrush that much....

What does the treacle stand for and what does the yogurt stand for?

Let's start with the treacle. I look closely at the treacle in the plate and suddenly a bunch of strawberry's appear. They float around in the brown/grayish sirup and they look very nice. I pick one of the strawberry's out and I hold it in my hand. I weigh it (it's suprisingly heavy) and I lick it (it's very sweet). The strawberry get's bigger and heavier as I hold it; it's the size of a 2 person tent now. A door appears out of nowhere and children are playing in it. I look inside and I see a suprinsly large room filled with toys like lego blocks, dolls and plastic toy cars. A slide appear at the top of this strawberry and there's a stair too, so the children can climb at the top of the berry and slide down. The strawberry appear to be multi functional. I touch it's side and it's still soft and squishy: it's still a real strawberry. A natural product. I get the feeling the floor is very important. The floor the strawberry is standing on is hard. It gives a good foundation for the children to play on. I see the small strawberry's floating around in the treacle and I realize that treacle or any kind of liquid is not a good foundation to build anything on. But at the same time; the treacle needs to be liquid for you to stir it. The treacle changes to yogurt and the yogurt changes to ice. I see a vast water which is frozen. People are skating on it; as are some fantasy figures including a cartoon wolf, a snowman and a piguin. The ice is also a good foundation to build on. It can handle nearly anything exept heat. On the other hand; treacle tastes quite nice if it's hot. So the treacle also has some good quality's that ice doesn't have, even though ice is a better foundation. Like the mighty eagle that fly’s in the sky; the real solution can be found by spreading your wings, fly away and look from above on the problem.

The solution?

Strawberry’s floating in yogurt is a nice recepy, but even better it is to freeze the yogurt; so the straberry’s have a good foundation. But the best way would be to freeze the yogurt, while still retaining the ability to heat it at will. The strawberry’s are very important: they are the center of government and they need to be moved, changed, or simply replaced if nessecary. You can only do that if the yogurt is liquid and thus it needs to be heated.

The problem with the current political system is that the sticky treacle is said to be the only way we can be governed. The plate is the egde of reason and beyond it no one looks; which reminds me of my analogy of the boxes. Most people think inside their own little box of perception; even though there are thousands upon thousands of other boxes to look in. But the place is not really the problem: government needs to be defined in a rigid framework and the plate is very good for this. But the quality of the sirup is questionable at best. Like I said: it is very hard to stir. The process of stirring is the everlasting political debate of solutions. But solutions are hard to find if the only place you look is in the sticky sirup that is hard to stir.

Yogurt ice provides a very rigid framework for the straberry’s to function. Strawberry’s are seperatly governed community’s, who look and function alike; but who all have control over a different geographical area. Like the many lines engraved on the skin of the berry, there need to be red lines of government choices. Like the lines on ones hand; they are unique. Although all hands look very much alike; the pattern of lines on your hand is unique. Strawberry’s are small and managable; they are nice to eat but they don’t fill your stomach (although they are still very healty). Likewise; a society needs to be cunked into little pieces that can govern most things for themselves. This will keep the model easy to manage. Stirring in a large plate of hard-to-stir treacle will not be nessecary.

The yogurt is the interacting between the straberry’s. There is still a central system of government; but the real power is still in the hands of these small community’s. People are skating on the yogurt ice to and from different straberry’s; with their skates leaving lines behind on the ice. These are also lines of goverment choice, but they are on a higher level: the national level. Sometimes outside influence is needed; so that the yogurt can be heated and the strawberry’s can be organised. And remember; this whole scene is still very small and fragile. A plate can be broken and straberry’s can be eated without much effort. The system is a means to achieve something and not a goal by itself. The plate is standing on a tabel. At that table people are looking at the scene before them. They have forks, spoons and knife and many other things you need for eating. These are tools they need to shape the model as I explained in new ways: for it will never be perfect. These people are always moving; people stare at the scene and have there say then they move away and other people fill there place. This is a control group. People randomly selected have there say in shaping the model on the table.

There’s really, much, much more to this image stream; but right now I can’t be bothered to write it all down. There are some many suble and meaningful perception to be found in this image stream. Perhaps at a later time I will write that all tdown. For now I think this will do.

The European constitution

I another interesting thing that comes to mind in this context is the voting for the European constitution. This was actually the first time in Holland we had a referendum. For many weeks politicians campained for it. They all expected us to vote in favour of it. But as time slowly passed and the day of the voting drew near, it grudually became clear that the voting would go against. Nomatter how hard these politicians tried, they could not get the population to vote in favor. The results was 62% against 38% I believe, but that doesn't even matter. What does matter is the way this referendum was executed. It really makes me sick. It had little to do with democracy at all! The first time such a referendum was held here, and all politicians expected us to vote for it. Much of the media was fixed on this. It seems to me that this is nothing more then an attempt at indoctrination. In our country the situation is getting worse. Time and time again the population shows that they do not agree with what politicians do. But they dont learn from it. Democracy at least in it's current form is flawed. Elections once every four years is not enough for democracy to function properly. At least not in this country. The referendum was only one example of the huge gap that’s between politicians and the population.

The problem is that politician are too far removed from society. They have lived inside their own world for my years. Like an astronaut who has lived in a space station for half his life, doesnt really know what is happening back on earth. Or like a mother who doesn't know how her child is behaving at school (until she get's the report card that is), but even that can show a heavily disorted image. How can you tell what is right for people, if you don't even know what they want? Let me give another example. I am a member of a students society. There are many people there I like, but some of their behavior is puzzling to me. Students who take 8 years over a 4 year degree; with the argument that the government will pay anyway. This same argument they often use to explain why they don't have a job. But many also feel that some jobs are just "too good" for them. I am part of this social group, but at the same time I have a part time job in a greenhouse. I am sure that most students would detest such a job. But I think it's ok really. Ok; I don't earn that much, but they work is nice enough and I work with nice people (although undoubly most are not nearly as smart as me). It really doesnt matter for me; at many times these lower educated people are more fun to talk with anyway. My point is: many students feel they are too good to have such a job and to work with such people. But at the same time, these are the people that will govern us some day. If they feel they are too good for the rest of the population, how can they govern that population well and fair?

My image stream has showed me two different solutions. One involves a direct control system where people are randomly selected from the poplutation to form a kind of control senate. Not to make decisions, but to judge them from time to time. They don't even have to have real political power. An advice group would be good enough. How does this help? For one thing it removes at least part of the gap that is between politicians and society. A group of people randomly selected, maybe give up there job for a years or so, to sit in a senate that judges certain laws and descisions. Politicians will be constantly reminded that they are governing for the people and when they do it badly they will get negative advice from this control group. Question is; would these people have enough expertise to judge laws effectivly? It’s an interesting question that cannot be answered rigth away, but perhaps this isnt even important. What is important is that a randomly selected group of people, will come from many different corners of society. They will all have a different perception and they will all have different strength and weaknesses; unlike politicians who all basicly think in the same box.

A second solution would be that drastically decentralize the government. Small groups function better then large groups most of the time, since they have less problems and situations to solve. If a model has less variables, it will be easier to solve. An easy basic system, is much easier to optimize then a large and extremly complex system. This could be part of the reason why our current governmental system is so inefficient. Another benefit of such small groups is that communication is potentially much better and efficient. If many peole have insight into the work a governor is doing, then that governor will undoubly improve his work.

Extra points

As I said before; there is much more to be gotten from this IS then I have done so far, but I can answer these points.

1: The strawberry feels completly natural, with a soft and squishy surface, but it is actually hollow inside. The inferior is darkened, with only scarce light coming from a neon light hanging at the ceiling. Small children are playing. In one corner I see a tabel with lego blocks on it. Two children are using these large, colored blocks to build a house, tower or similair building. There's also a t.v. where a particular children's show is playing. Another child is riding a bicycle. As I focus more on the interior of this room it appears to grow larger and larger. I hear strange sounds that somehow the straberry is growing. I see the strawberry is actually hanging at the branch of a plant. There're many plants here and the strawberry appears to be only a small part of it.

The straberry is indeed a part of the government. The playful additude suggest very much the thinking outside of the box that must be done to achieve it. The building blocks stand for the building of an efficient organisation and the lego blocks are chosen because different parts of the plain must be stacked upon each other. Small, managable component's. The tv shows whats going on in the world, with extensive coverage and the bicycle is actually for the moving around and seeing with your own senses what is going on in the world.

2: The key difference lies in the treacle versus the yogurt ice. The treacle is the set minded thinking of politicians today. The treacle is our extensive model of society with everything in it from the public school system, to motor taxes. The problem is that this model is so large, complex and inefficient that altering it is like stirring in the treacle: it takes a long time and because of opposing party's and conflicting needs you never actually get what you want. Many laws are discussed that changes just a little bit of the current system, but the system is so large and complex that all overview is lost. That's why the strawberry's are so great. They are managable community's, like pions on a checkers board. All are capable of moving independent, but you need all of them to stand a chance at winning the match. Cooperation on national basis is needed, but only when truly nessecary. This garantees some important things, but the main benefit is easier management, because your working with a much smaller and easier to manage model. Other then that I believe the 12 headed council we've spoken of before is still very much in order here, as is the book of law that still lies at it's center, but is used more guidance then for law. It's more of a philosophy then a strict set of rules. Then there are other points we've discussed. Flexibility (the ability to change the government on higher levels then just the changing of a law) and communication (so that the population has direct influence on the government itself and not just through a four year voting system).

Interestingly this model is entirely opposite from the current trend of globalisation. Is it any wonder that the European constitution is unwanted by even the European population? Another interesting question to think about.....

What IS the best solution to the present difficulties andinhumanities inthe world?

Again I see the image of the cat opening the black box. You don't know what's inside, but the answer comes out unexpectedly. It suprises you and baffles you completly. All good solutions seem crazy on the surface. I see a freeway with cars passing by at both sides. The are manystrokes and all strokes are full of cars, but they don't hinder each other. These are independent modules workign seperatly, but all are very efficient. I see various drivers of cars signalling each other. They simply greet each other. Now I see a round table, with about 12 seats and 12 persons occupying the seats. A book lies in the middle. This is a way of governing. A selected number of people working on equal basis at this round table. Their's a book of law in the middle, but it's only a book. The government is made by the people and not by the rules inthe book, because if you put the law above everything; you are thinking inside the small treasure chest as describing above and you cannot get out. But in fact there are many thousands of chests all in the same room. All are boxes of the same size and shape. You onlyneed one key to open them all at will and that key is creativy; or thinking outside the box.I see a PDA computer. I put it in my pocked. I can feel it in my jacket, but it doesnt bother me. I hear a signal and I take it out; it seems I've been e mailed. I'm at the freeway again, but now I'm drying at the other side of the road. There are modules indepentdant of each other, but trough IT; communication is easily possible. It's convienent and efficient. There is a strong splitting of tasks, but also strong inter communication between all tasks. Communication makes people move like the grass in the wind. Always moving when itblows, but never cracking. I see thousands upon thousands of tanks in a dark and futuristic scene. They are filled with people. At least that's what I think. They are about the size of a norally lengthed person, but the glass of these tanks are green and filled with fog. I can't see what's inside. This is a dark room in an omnious setting. I'm overwelmed by it's size. Suddenly a hand breaks the glass of one of the tanks. Mist spreads out. Fluid scattersacross the ground. It's slimy and green. I've never seeen anything like it. A grey hand and upper arm appear out of the tank, trying to press the button that will open the glass. It's not human. I see long fingers with claws and I'm scared, because I have no idea what will pop out of this tank. Like this tank there are many thousands in this room. All filled with strange and bizzare creatures. I see other tanks are breaking too and strange beasts are moving out. Theare similair to humans in form, but they are defenatly not. They are alien. I see weird green beasts with six arms and blue aquatic seeming creatures with many tentacles coming out of the back of their head. All are coming out of their tanks. They have been in statis for a long while, but now these alien have awoken. The more creatures I see coming out of the tanks, the more I feel at peace in this scene. Lights go on and the room is no longer dark. There arenot only aliens in this huge room, but also humans like me and the humans and alien interact. They are speaking to each other in strange tongues. I view this science fiction scene and it reminds me of tv shows like star trek where human and aliens interact on a (mostly) friendly basis. People are scared of the unkown. Solutions presented by image streaming seem strange and alien, but the more it evolves into society, the less scary it is.

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